Friday, April 16, 2010

N IS FOR "NEW AMERICAN MAGAZINE" & "NEVERLAND LOST"

.“Tired of being the life of the party?Change your shorts, change your life, change your lifeChange into a nine-year-old Hindu boy, get rid of your wife . . .”

GOOD STUFFSN IS FOR “NEW AMERICAN MAGAZINE” :..It will be hard for anyone who knows me to accept that I was at one time almost apolitical. Didn’t wanna know, didn’t care, don’t talk to me ‘bout politicians, got my fingers in my ears goin’ “LA!-LA!-LA!-LA!”

But a funny thing happened on the way to the bar. I came to realize that politics, whether or not I like it, have a very intrusive effect on my life. Depending upon the way the game of politics is played, I could end up a free citizen in a free country or quite literally a slave on a prison planet.

Yeah, if I have any interest in my future at all (not to mention an interest in the future of YOUR children and YOUR grandchildren – because I haven’t got any), I had damn sure BETTER take an interest in politics! “Politics” is just another way of saying “Stuffs that affects MY life.”

Well, I just want to share with you a link to a website of an organization that publishes what I consider to be far and away the best current events magazine in the country today. It’s called 'The New American' (TNA), and a reader will find more truth in just one single copy of TNA than in 100 copies of Time and Newsweek.

I first began subscribing to TNA back in May of 2001, and although I have disagreed with a few minor ponts of view expressed by the magazine over the years, I have found it to be a highly reliable, factual source for news - both nationally and globally - as well as social commentary and American history.

One unique aspect of ‘The New American’ magazine, giving it more credence, in my opinion, than other current event periodicals, is its world-view which includes a well-supported argument that political events are unfolding in our time which, by design, are leading us to a one-world, socialistic government. While not articulating any denominational preference and rarely even straying into overt discussions of religion, TNA is coming from a Biblically moral point of view based upon God’s Judeo-Christian laws and a respect for Scriptural guidance.

TNA covers an extremely wide range of topics from Constitutional issues and healthcare reform to significant European happenings, from book and movie reviews to the “real” history of America’s founding. In other words, ANYTHING that’s newsworthy or impacts the world today is liable to be examined within the pages of and on the website of The New American.

Anyone interested in broadening their understanding of the world they live in is hereby encouraged to peruse the writings published by TNA.

BAD STUFFSN IS FOR “NEVERLAND LOST” :..We’re all familiar with the concept of Neverland from J. M. Barrie’s story about Peter Pan. It’s commonly thought of as a place where children don’t grow up, a place of eternal childhood.

And in high school, most of us were subjected to John Milton’s endless 17th-Century poem ‘Paradise Lost’ (what was lost was my interest!)

But how many of you are familiar with ‘Neverland Lost’? That’s right – NONE of you. That’s because I just now invented the term for this Blog Bit. Well, to me, “Neverland Lost” represents the slipping away of our childhood despite our protestations. It’s the unfulfilled wish to remain pure and free - free from adult cares. In other words, it’s us begging, “Stop the world and let me off!” but that bastard with the dirty cap, three day’s of hair growth on his jowls, chomping down on a moist, smelly stogie answering our pleas by merely shouting back, “Sit down!”

In looking through these old poems of mine, I’m struck by the concern I expressed about aging, or growing up. In the poem ‘A Chance At Heaven’ it’s oddly humorous to see “the dwindling days of my youth” mentioned. I was just 19 or 20 when that was written. In ‘Ah, Thunder’, a poem written even earlier, I find myself worried that the time available to pursue my dreams is running out. In ‘Questions’, I write of “opportunity stolen by passing years.” Yes, childhood (or “Neverland”) lost was one of the principal themes that inspired me to write “poetry” in my youth. I seemed to be unusually and acutely aware of my aging and sad to see my innocence dying.

Below is the final poem that I’m planning to post on my Blog. Written just four days after I turned twenty, it’s called ‘Days Long Past’ and the subject matter is – you guessed it – “Neverland Lost”.

DAYS LONG PAST

Often I look back into days long pastThose careless, easy days when I was smallAnd again I play children’s games in a timeless SummerThe wind bringing the sound of my Mother’s call

Father was working, Mother was youngMy Brother was little and so was IDirt was free and imaginations were wildI thought that I could fly

Our days were new and never endingAnd, Oh, those stories told under the treeI remember the long walk to schoolAnd the walk home, to Brother, waiting for me

Still I recall those sunny daysPlaying with friends and that punch on the noseReal cowboys and real IndiansBack then one could be whomever they chose

And of course I was always in loveWith a little girl who lived down the streetThose wondrous days when fantasyMade reality obsolete

Those long gone days seem almost perfectOne thing I’d change, howeverI only wish that I’d been toldThat they wouldn’t last forever

For the days moved very slowlyBut the years fell behind so fastAnd now I’ve come to realizeThe best is in the past

Now Father is working and Mother feels oldAnd the world tells me I am grownBoys are calling, Sister is datingAnd Brother lives alone

You see the world through different eyesWhen you support yourselfAnd it’s no fun to act your age when younger daysAre toys on the shelf

The body slows down along with your thoughtsAs age steals your imaginationAnd your claim to youth has long been takenBy a brand new generation

I see so much has changedMother and Brother say they want to dieAnd I can’t relive the age of nineDespite the tears I cry

And the happiness that I once knewI simply cannot findNow all I have are memoriesThat echo in my mind

[Interestingly, although ‘Days Long Past’ is now 30 years old, I still remember seeing “Mouse” - a stuffed animal given to me on my first birthday - sitting on a shelf in my room, while I was writing the poem. And it was “Mouse” who inspired the line about “toys on the shelf.” The same “Mouse” in the photograph above.]

Le McQuote Du Jour:Woke up with my shoes onCouldn’t find my pants or my kneesCoffee’s goneAnd my aspirin is just nowhere to be seen.One warm beer in the fridge nowWarm because that bill’s overdueI’ve lived through mornings like this beforeGuess I’ll live through this one too.~ John Napier

YE OLDE COMMENT POLICY: All comments, pro and con, are welcome. However, ad hominem attacks and disrespectful epithets will not be tolerated (read: "posted"). After all, this isn’t Amazon.com, so I don’t have to put up with that kind of bovine excrement..

5 comments:

I do so love your poetry, it's excellent.I can quite understand why you wrote this one.I suppose we all have to grow up sooner than later.......me I haven't made it yet lol.

I had to smile about the political issue you wrote about, here in the UK it's election fever time, if you think US politics are confusingtry ours, one needs a degree just to put a cross alongside their choice. I will look atthat magazineyou mentioned try and broaden my horizons and all that jazz.

Good-- Politics are something I can take or leave, and I'd probably prefer to take them and leave them somewhere. I enjoy discussing them on occasion with certain people but I tend to avoid the topic in most cases because that's usually not what I'm talking about. I subscribe to Newsweek (or is it Time and look at the cover to see what articles I want to read later and then toss the magazines aside and am still waiting for later to come. I am fully expecting the one world government to come eventually cause it says so in the Bible and if I help stop it from happening then the Bible must be wrong. I'd probably be interested in a lot that the New American Magazine has to say but I guess I'm really more interested in the New Heaven and a New Earth and understanding all about that. But I agree the magazine has got to be some good stuff if you're saying so. Do you think that one's on the list of magazines my credit card offers to get me some extra points?

Bad -- Another good poem. I really liked it and you were writing some deep and cool stuff back then. Yeah, I think you should continue to write more poetry. It would be interesting to see how your stylistic approach would be different now.

The trick with politicians is to keep your eyes on BOTH of their hands. They're a lot like magicians who try to distract you with a lot of single hand movement. Only with the politicians, if you focus too much on the hand waving around in the air, you fail to notice their other hand reaching into your wallet.

Have a great weekend, Y.

rLEE-b ~Well, I'm glad to know you're not actually "reading" NEWSWEEK (or is it TIME?) because that stuffs would only brainwash ya!

As for the One-World Government... if it's in The Bible (and you're right, it is!) there's no way you COULD stop it. But nevertheless, I doubt that it is God's wish to see us all just roll over and play dead for satan. And the person who's really informed about this can try to inform others, too. Not so they can stop it (they can't), but so they will recognize the coming End Time and get themselves right with God while there's still time to do so.

Bad -- Thank you, Bro. Actually, it never even occurs to me to write poetry anymore. As I said in an earlier Blog Bit, I usually wrote it just to exorcise the demons. But I'm not host to so many demons anymore, so poetry is far from my thoughts. But thanks again; glad ya liked it.

~ Stephen"As a dog returns to his own vomit, so a fool repeats his folly." ~ Proverbs 26:11

Follow by Email

Search This Blog

About My Pseudonym

STEPHEN = The first person known to have been martyred because of their personal testimony of Jesus Christ (Acts 6-7). My foremost allegiance is to my Holy King, Jesus, who has been given all authority in Heaven and on Earth, and to His God who bestowed it upon Him (Matt. 28:18; John 20:17). ----- T. = Thoreau, as in Henry David Thoreau, the writer and staunch abolitionist who, in 1849, penned the classic essay 'Civil Disobedience' wherein he wrote: "I cannot for an instant recognize that political organization as my government which is the slave's government also." I abhor slavery and injustice in all of their forms! ----- McCARTHY = The Wisconsin Senator, Joseph McCarthy, one of America's greatest heroes, and the most unjustly vilified individual in our country's history! His unappreciated, rebuffed efforts to expose Communist infiltration of our government transformed this embattled man's name into a pejorative catchword: McCarthyism. If you still believe that Joseph McCarthy was the most evil American of the Twentieth Century, educate yourself today. Go to... http://www.knology.net/~bilrum/mccarthy.htm ...and see how you've been misled.